When San Francisco resident Moira De Nike started Dancers for Democracy in 2004 to help the Kerry campaign register voters outside solid-blue California, she met resistance.

"No one was talking about going out of state," she said. "I felt we can stand on corners and register new voters in San Francisco, but will we have made the most difference with our efforts?"

De Nike's group raised enough money to send 35 women to Miami, but this presidential election season De Nike saw an opportunity to use Web 2.0 tools to expand on travel possibilities.

Taking elements from such successful Web sites as the social networking Facebook, the micro-lending organization Kiva and the leukemia fundraising platform Team in Training, De Nike launched ObamaTravel.org, with her husband, Alex Wise, this month. The site is joined by another pro-Barack Obama enterprise, TravelforChange.org, founded by Stanford '08 graduate Alisa Whitfield, which also helps Democratic volunteers seeking to travel to swing states connect to potential sponsors.

Neither organization is part of the Obama campaign, but the spin-offs mesh well with the campaign's decentralized and increasingly online networking and fundraising strategy. They also point to the way the Internet continues to transform both presidential campaigns.

While there appears to be no dedicated travel startup for McCain, nonpartisan fundraising site PeerDreams.org features profiles of Republicans looking for funding to travel to swing states.

The concept for ObamaTravel and TravelForChange developed out of San Francisco Obama supporter meetings attended by De Nike and Whitfield. While the sites began as one entity, they ended up going in different directions.

TravelForChange focuses on getting Obama supporters to donate frequent-flier miles, while ObamaTravel allows supporters to give both frequent-flier miles and money directly to volunteers - and encourages volunteers to connect with each other. Both sites allow volunteers to post profiles, personal information, and a description of where they want to go and why.

Whitfield got the idea for TravelforChange from Obama supporter Michele Burgess, who during the 2008 primaries posted her contact information on blogs and managed to collect 2 million miles for travel that she gave away to eager campaigners. To create TravelForChange, Whitfield enlisted graphic design assistance from her college roommate Mesa Schumacher, and Web help from Stanford '08 classmate Jason Prado and Google programmer Brian Park.

Whitfield said she wanted to focus on frequent-flier miles to avoid funneling money away from the official campaign. Because money and miles go directly to volunteers, donations do not count toward the $2,300 personal campaign contribution maximum.

"I'm planning to move to Colorado tomorrow, so I can canvas in my free time," Whitfield said, noting that she is a "campaign nerd."

The two Web sites, together, have drawn about 100 volunteers since their launch. De Nike said that most of the 40 or so volunteers on ObamaTravel are being sponsored by their friends and family, but more strangers have been signing on to participate. TravelForChange's Schumacher said there has been a far wider age range of volunteers than she anticipated.

TravelForChange collects and vets information from would-be volunteers over the phone, and then arranges flight plans with prospective donors, who select their frequent-flier mile recipients from volunteers' online profiles. ObamaTravel does all of its business online, using PayPal to let donors give straight to Obama travelers. As Wise noted, "There is a certain amount of trust involved" with both Web sites, as there is no mechanism to police promised campaign activity.

De Nike couldn't be happier with the contrast between her experience in '04 and '08, and believes the efforts of netroots activism will make the difference for Obama.

"When we arrived in Miami, we couldn't get people to call us back. We tried to get in touch with a number of Kerry offices and just didn't get through," she said. "Now, coordinating and getting on the ground is instantaneous. ... The Obama campaign recognizes the strength and the political impact those enthusiastic door-knockers have. They can turn the election."